Category Archives: Environment

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Also posted on The Dodo When promoting veganism, we’re often confronted by claims of care toward humans as though they negate the importance of going vegan. Veganism is trivialized as something for “animal lovers,” not for humanitarians and social justice … Continue reading →

“Globally, we don’t have a famine problem; we have a livestock problem. Feeding food to animals and then eating the animals is kind of like heating your house during the winter by burning wood outside. We don’t have a global … Continue reading →

*According to scientists at the World Bank, animal agriculture produces 51% of all man-made greenhouses gases, which is more than all forms of transportation combined and tripled.*Animal agriculture uses 1/3 of all raw materials and 1/3 of all fossil fuels … Continue reading →

From Rainforest Action Network: “The life cycle and supply chain of domesticated animals raised for food have been vastly underestimated as a source of green house gas emissions (GHGs) and in fact account for at least half of all human … Continue reading →

“[T]he human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future—deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of … Continue reading →

“Grazing has its place in just about every agricultural system that involves livestock. This includes cows bred to produce “organic” dairy products, or those set to become “grass-fed beef,” who will graze for two to three years before slaughter, or … Continue reading →

We’re Meant to Eat Animals
“In “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating,” Milton Mills explains that human anatomy and physiology are much more akin to herbivores than omnivores or carnivores. Nevertheless, a defining feature of being human is that we are not reducible to our biology. As moral beings capable of choosing our way of life, it is worth questioning whether we are strictly “meant” to do anything.”

Eating Locally Raised Animals is Sustainable
“If a household buys only local food but regularly buys animal products, they are saving the greenhouse gas equivalent of about 1,000 miles of driving per year. However, if they eat vegan food for only 1 day a week with no regard for buying local they save the equivalent of 1,160 miles per year. […] With final transportation only accounting for 4 percent of total emissions, it is more resource efficient and sustainable to eat whole, organically grown plant foods grown 3,000 miles away than it is to eat animal foods grown by your neighbor.”

Dairy Cows Will Explode if We Don’t Milk Them
“Expressions like ‘cows give milk’ and ‘cows need to be milked’ along with the array of dairy advertisements showing happy, willing cows are extremely deceiving. These claims overlook the basic requirement for all mammals to lactate: pregnancy and childbirth. Human consumption of dairy requires that we hijack this natural process through repeated artificial insemination and the subsequent separation of calf from mother so that we can take the milk for ourselves. […] According to the USDA, 97 percent of dairy calves are permanently taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth.”

Fish Don’t Feel Pain
“The myth that fish don’t feel pain and don’t have a nervous systemis still alive and well despite the fact that research increasingly shows that their perception and cognition often matches and exceeds that of other vertebrates. This means that they can no longer be considered an ethical grey area. […] In all vertebrates, free nerve-endings register pain. Fish have an abundance of these nerve-endings and also produce pain-reducing substances like endorphins.”

Leather is a Harmless By-Product
“Leather is not a by-product of the slaughter industry. It is a co-product. The sale of animal skins makes up approximately half of the profits of all slaughter businesses that process cows. Factory farms could not be profitable without the sale of skins. By the pound, leather is the most profitable part of an animal. This means that cows are killed for their skin as much as they are killed for their meat.”

“It may seem like the simple act of buying a product as one individual has little impact on animals and ecosystems, but single acts practiced by many individuals accumulate into massive worldwide problems. […]

“It takes a staggering 2,500 gallons of water to produce just one 16-ounce steak. This is the amount of water that one person uses for six months of showers. The daily water use of an average American for household tasks is about 100 gallons, but eating just one hamburger increases water use by as many as 4,000 gallons.

According to a 2011 study published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, the average global water footprints of beef and chicken are 1,845 and 520 gallons per pound, respectively, while the water footprint of both potatoes and spinach is just 35 gallons per pound, and the nutritional powerhouse, the soybean, weighs in at 260.